AWQ4MI Mrs. Kalinowski

Ancient Beginnings…Ancient Beginnings… “Photography” is Greek

(‘phosgraphein’) Phos/Photo = ‘light’ Graphein/Graphy = ‘writing’

5th century BCE Chinese Philosopher, Mo Ti Observes illuminated image

passing through a small hole

330 BCE Greek Philosopher, Aristotle Observes an image of the sun

reflected on the ground during an eclipse

Light from a solar eclipse passing through small gaps in tree branches that act as ‘lenses’

***The earliest “photograph”

Writing with Light

Solar Eclipse: The moon covers the sun

Streams of light pass through small ‘gaps’ in trees

The light reflects the sun’s image on the ground

Multiple crescents reflected on pavement

Writing with Light

Camera ObscuraCamera Obscura 14th-16th centuries Renaissance Era

science, experimentation, observation out ruled ‘belief’ and ‘magic’

Desire to document & represent the world in a rational, logical way

1490: Da Vinci writes about camera obscura

‘Pinhole Camera’

“Camera” = room (in Spanish)

“Obscura” = dark

Camera ObscuraCamera Obscura‘Pinhole Camera’

Light passes through a small hole and reflects an inverted image

‘Photos’ resembled drawings in linear perspective

HeliographHeliograph Pewter plate

coated with bitumen of Judae (black, toxic residue)

Plate placed in camera obscura with pinhole directed at city scene

Extended exposure/processing time (8 hours!)

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce [1765-1833]

View from His Window at Le Gras, 1826

‘nee-epps’

DaguerreotypeDaguerreotype Highly

polished silver plates placed in camera obscura

Exposed to light/scene for 20min.

Treated with heated mercury vapor, then table salt

Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre [1789-1851]

Still Life in the Artist’s Studio, 1837

DaguerreotypeDaguerreotypeLouis Jacques Mandé Daguerre [1789-1851]

CalotypeCalotype Sheet covered in salt and iodine exposed to an image/light

Brushed with gallic acid in a dark room

‘negative’ image formed

‘negative’ printed onto salted paper for a ‘reverse’, positive print (reproducible)

William Henry Fox Talbot [1800-1877]

Courtyard Scene, 1844

Collodion/Wet-Plate Collodion/Wet-Plate ProcessProcess

Similar process to Calotype, but with glass

glass coated with iodized collodion

Glass exposed while wet

Created finely-detailed negatives in seconds

Reproducible as positive images at a faster rate than paper

Frederick Scott Archer [1813-1857]

Sparrow’s House, Ipswich, Suffock, 1857

Collodion/Wet-Plate Collodion/Wet-Plate ProcessProcess

Frederick Scott Archer [1813-1857]

Carte-de-VisiteCarte-de-Visite Spin-off of

collodion process

Multi-lens camera (called ‘tubes’) made multiple exposures on glass wet plate

Exposures were cut apart for single photos/shots

Andre Disdéri [1819-1890]

Napoleon III was on a military campaign against Austria and stopped to have Disdéri make a ‘visiting card’ of him in Paris*Disdéri became instantly famous, the riches photographer in the world!

Napoleon III, May 1859